Green Residential Village in Bekaa - Lebanon: Design and Certification Processes

ECOTECH Engineering is intending to construct a green village at Haouch Tal Safyat, Bekaa, Lebanon. This site was chosen due to several reasons including its distinctive location in the heart of Bekaa valley, which is special for its climate and affordable land. The project started with the preparation of the site to match the green requirements. This village called "Heliopolis Compound" contains 40 residential villas for the first stage. This paper completely covers the green design and certification of the residential villas. Each villa was perfectly designed to meet the GRASS green building rating system and thus getting the GRASS certification, validating that the design is highly successful and feasible. Meeting the level 1 "Emerald" of GRASS yielded an estimated over cost of 10% and the payback period of all improvements varies from 2 to 8 years depending on technology choices. Designing this compound was the first step in the long journey of green thinking in residential sector in Lebanon, and we hope it will be the bedrock of upcoming ideas concerning the green path we intended to follow.